“I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Hunt.” The man with the low voice extends his hand. I shake it. “I’m the foreman at Wilder Ranch.”
“I thought you were too busy to be out here.” Joy nudges him with an elbow.
His eyes go soft as they fall on Joy. “You, okay?”
“Yep.” She winks at him.
“You sure?”
Joy sighs elaborately. “Yes, I am…Daddy.”
He growls low, almost feral. “I gotta go. I got money ridin’ on a pool game.” And with that, he saunters off.
I look at Joy, who’s looking mighty satisfied with herself.
Aria waves her hand in explanation. “There’s some drama there.”
“No drama.” Joy looks at her manicure. “He wants to get into my pants and?—”
“And she wants to climb him like a tree,” Aria finishes with an eye roll.
Joy chuckles. “Can you blame me?”
Mav flicks his sister’s nose. “Leave the poor man alone. He’s gonna lose his heart to you, and you’re gonna break it for him.”
Joy makes a face and sticks her tongue out at her brother. “Fat lot you know about Hunt. He’s not the falling kind.” There’s something wistful in her voice.
Mav’s gaze settles on me. “All okay?”
Was it all okay? Yeah, it freaking was. I had a bunch of people who shut one guy up for making a snide remark.
Holy shit!
“Yes.”
“Good. We’re going to be right here, so you relax and have a good evenin’. Anyone bothers you, we’ll take care of them.”
I nod slowly while my pulse skips around like a spooked colt.
He and Kaz drift to the pool table in the back, where Hunt is.
I glance at Aria and Joy enquiringly. They never mentioned that their men were at the Rusty Spur. “They’re all here?”
Aria tilts her head, incredulous. “You didn’t think we’d bring you here without backup, did you?”
“But…why?”
Joy grins and downs the last of her beer. “‘Cause you’re one of us, girl.” She hops off her stool and claps her hands. “Now, who’s ready to dance?”
I’ve got more people stepping in to defend me than I ever had in my whole life. And it’s…disconcerting.
I don’t know what to do with it, with any of it.
I don’t trust it.
I’ve been conditioned to wait for the other shoe to drop.
Joy grabs Hunt and gets him on the dance floor while Aria stays with me.
